IRC

What is IRC?

Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is a form of instant communication over the Internet. It is mainly designed for group (many-to-many) communication in discussion forums called channels, but also allows one-to-one communication. More information can be found in the wikipedia article

How do I get on?

You need an IRC-client to connect to the network. There are many clients available and it's up to you to decide what you use. Every clients homepage usually has a nice tutorial or help-page on how to connect with the client.

For a more full list of clients refer to this wikipedia article.

Usable on all operating systems is the online webclient.

BattleMaster Chat

Since January 12th 2013 the online webclient has been linked directly from the BattleMaster mainpage under the heading 'Chat' and usable through the BattleMaster website. This addition is meant as a means to further encourage player-to-player interaction and community.

Upon first using the webclient, players logged into BattleMaster will automatically be enrolled into chat channels based on the realms and continents their active characters exist in. Players have the ability to change their IRC nickname and what channels are joined upon using the webclient by selecting 'Edit Data' on their family page.

The full news ticker announcement of the inclusion of the web client went as follows:

As you can see, a new button has been added to the left navigation bar. This is a web client to the IRC chat that many BattleMaster players have been using for years. It is not an in-character chat. Everything said and done on IRC is done by the players, not the characters. This means, for instance, that orders cannot be given on IRC. It is, however, a great place to meet other members of the community, chat about BattleMaster and everything else, and even put together general plans for what you and other players want to do in-game.

Neither the web client nor the chat service are run by Tom or the BattleMaster team. They are provided by QuakeNet, and as such, we do not have complete control over them.
– Anaris

Windows clients

mIRC
ChatZilla - a Firefox extension
Pidgin - A multi-platform, multi-protocol, open source IM client (Formerly known as gaim. Simultaneously handles MSN, Yahoo, AIM, IRC, and many more.)
Trillian - another multi-protocol IM client
X-Chat 2
X-Chat 2 - A free unofficial Windows port of X-Chat.

Unix/Linux clients

Mac OS X clients

Battlemaster IRC history

The Battlemaster community has traveled through a multitude of irc-networks. Here's a little background information on the history of each network and why it was abandoned and why we moved on to other networks.

Jurai (irc.jurai.org)

This is the original and first network where a BattleMaster channel appeared, around October 2002 by mostly Perdanese players at first. It was a nice small network with plenty of other browser-based game communities flourishing around, but unfortunately it went belly up and merged with IRCWorld.

IRCWorld

As a result of the merger, on November 12th 2002 the BattleMaster community "moved" to this network. Unfortunately the network caused lots of headache & gray hair (mainly reliability issues: on top of the higher-than-usual split ratio, connections were getting reset, pings were lost, the network had some mysterious limits, suffered from constant reboots. then there was the occasional outsider invasions on the channel from elsewhere of the network), and generally performed badly, so the community decided to move again.

IRCWorld homepage

QuakeNet (irc.quakenet.org)

The third network where a Battlemaster channel appeared and it is still the home for #battlemaster. QuakeNet is the bastion of BattleMaster related channels. There are many realm specific channels and of course there is also #battlemaster. #Battlemaster was created on November 16th 2002 and it serves as a gathering point for all BattleMaster players. Currently the channel hovers at around 25 people at peak times and sports a wide variety of troopleaders (kings, bankers, dukes, regular nobles and so on) and players (from the USA, Mexico, Finland, Belgium, Netherlands and so on).

QuakeNet homepage

irc.battlemaster.org

There was a time when Tom had created an own IRC-server for BattleMaster. The server was up for a short time, but was closed down. The reason probably being that it never really caught on or that it was more trouble than it was worth.

Also, it existed simultaneously with the more established Quakenet channels and had some interesting future prospects with some level of game-related integration. Alas, the project winded down after the initial enthusiasm from both the developers' and users' part wore off. One of the major problems with the concept was that whenever BattleMaster crashed, the BM IRC network became inaccessible as well. And whenever BM crashes, the IRC activity tends to spike as well. People crave for their daily fix and start to wonder if the problem exists only in their end, or is it down for all.

Hopefully we'll see the server up once again and see it catch on.

The channels

Here's a little list of channels that exist on various networks.

Quakenet

#arcaea - The channel for Arcaea on FEI.
#atamara - The channel for Atamara.
#battlemaster - The main BM channel. Talks go from BM related stuff all the way to the meaning of life(and lots of silliness and vulgarity). Even Tom stops by sometimes ;)
#beluaterra - The channel for Beluaterra.
#BloodStars - The channel for Morek, Astrum, and Sanguis Astroism on Dwilight.
#bm-far-east - The channel for Far East Island.
#Cagilan-Empire - The channel for Cagilan Empire on Atamara.
#Caligus - The channel for Caligus on East Island
#D'Hara - The channel for D'Hara on Dwilight.
#Dwilight - The channel for Dwilight.
#east-island - The channel for East Island.
#Eponllyn - The channel for Eponllyn on East Island.
#Fontania - The channel for Fontan on East Island.
#Ibladesh - The channel for Ibladesh on East Island.
#Itorunt - The channel for Itorunt on East Island.
#libero-empire - The channel for Libero Empire on Dwilight.
#Pian-en-Luries - The channel for Pian en Luries on Dwilight.
#Perdan - The channel for Perdan on East Island.
#Riombara - The channel for Riombara on Beluaterra.
#Sirion - The channel for Sirion on East Island.
#South-darka - The channel for Darka on Atamara.
#Thalmarkin - The channel for Thalmarkin on Beluaterra.

The People

So who hangs out on #BattleMaster these days?

Regulars:

LilWolf
Delvin_Anaris
Stabbity
Oszero/Delicious_Cake/Companion_Cube
Fleugs
Jimgerdes
Veritek
^ban^
M2rt
Aerywyn
Esorp aka Dave`
Tali
Moto
dustole
Octavius
Bedwyr
De-Legro
Lauren
Sacha
Woelfy
Shadows
Hroppa
Stinkyoldmen - Usually known as Zaki/Zakilevo
Lorgan

Occasional Visitors:

Once in a Blue Moon (or on April Fools):

_Tom_

Gone, but Not Forgotten:

Anthem

The #Battlemaster channel has its own anthem! You can hear it here. The lyrics go as follows:

(To the tune of Pomp and Circumstance)

Evil! Evil! Evil!

Battlemaster also has its own anthem! You can hear it here. The lyrics go as follows:

(To the tune of Pomp and Circumstance)

Land of War and Intrigue, lightweight, fun, and free,

How much shall we play thee, who are called to thee?

Larger still and larger shall thy database get;

Tom who made thee awesome, make thee awesomer yet!

Quotes

IRC is a very social medium and as such there's lots of talk and funny moments. Here are some memorable quotes from various channels.

Quotes

You can also see various statistics related to the chatter in some of the main channels (particularly #battlemaster) at the statistics page.